ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Leaders from around Michigan are expected to make an announcement Monday morning involving regional transit.
Sources said this is expected to be a push to expand regional transit in the Metro Detroit area. The announcement is happening at 10 a.m. at Beaumont in Royal Oak.
Expected in attendance include: Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Oakland County Executive David Coulter, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners Char Jason Morgan, State Rep. Jason Sheppard (R-Temperance), Beaumont Health COO Carolyn Wilson, Wayne County Board of Commissioners Chair Alisha Bell, Detroit City Council member Scott Benson and Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chair David Woodward.
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Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel is not expected to be there.
In 2016, Metro Detroit voters rejected a tax to fund a regional public transportation plan. Voters in Wayne and Washtenaw counties overall supported the tax, but it was opposed in Oakland and Macomb counties.
In 2018, Wayne County revealed a new regional transit plan that it hoped would make the 2018 ballot. At the time, Oakland County released a statement saying it “cannot support a regional transit plan that taxes Oakland County communities which already said ‘no’ to funding regional transit just 16 months ago.”